512- TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [ETH. ANN. 31 



At this time an elk skin, painted red on both sides, is spread out 

 while the new name is announced. 



It will be noticed here that the father's group always proclaims the 

 new name of a person. There are other services which the father's 

 relatives have to render: 



They tattoo hands or body. 



They carve the masks and other paraphernalia for use in the 

 potlatch. 



They support the dancer. 



The women of the father's group wash t he body of a deceased person 

 and wail for him. 



The men of the father's group prepare the coffin and the grave. 



Among special customs relating to the support of dancers, I 

 learned about the following from Mr. Tate: When Chief LEg-e'°x of 

 the Eagles of the G'i-spa-x-la'°ts, in a festival, wore the Frog hat 

 (see p. 267), and the cane with one frog on top, two others on the 

 sides, two of his father's relatives stood by his side and held the hat 

 on his head. When he wore a Beaver hat (see p. 272), one man of 

 each of the four exogamic groups would help hold it, to show that 

 LEg - e'°x was the highest in rank among all the clans. 



Every important event in life was celebrated by a feast and pot- 

 latch, and all gifts made according to custom were paid by presents. 



When a child eats fresh berries for the first time, its mother gives 

 presents to the father's relatives. 



When a man makes a small canoe or a bow for his maternal uncle's 

 son, his uncle pays him well. 



When a man's wife receives provisions from his female relatives, 

 she pays them. 



Those who attend to the funeral of a person are paid by both 

 father and mother of the deceased. 



When a man gives to his sister's son or daughter one of the lullabies 

 of the clan, he is well paid for it. 



Children are educated with great care, and particularly the children 

 of chiefs are guarded jealously. Chiefs' sons are taught to be proud of 

 then descent, to be active in acquiring wealth as a means of maintain- 

 ing their social position, to be lavish in their distribution of food and 

 property, to observe scrupulously all the prescribed taboos, and to 

 refrain from unseemly noise. 



Chiefs' daughters were brought up with a number of girl com- 

 panions (p. 432). Chastity was one of the prime virtues of girls. 

 In order to protect their daughters, the parents would let them 

 sleep in a bedroom over their own bed, the only access to which was 

 by means of a ladder leading up from their own bedroom (p. 427). 

 As an additional precaution, a slave-woman might be made to sleep 

 right at the foot of the ladder. The girl must not go out when 

 there were any young men on the street, and never alone, but only 

 accompanied by her girl friends. 



